For major countries, transport aircraft is an indispensable part. It can not only undertake tasks such as transportation of civilian materials (including transnational transportation), emergency rescue and disaster relief, and military exercises in peacetime. It can also undertake tasks such as military supplies, weapons and ammunition and troop delivery during wartime. For example, in the Gulf War , the US Air Force mobilized more than 500 military transport aircraft , flying tens of thousands of times. In more than five months, it successively sent about 500,000 troops and 550,000 tons of military supplies to the countries surrounding Iraq .
US military transport aircraft in the Gulf War
Although it is less than 5% of the total transportation volume in material transportation, it plays a very important role in the entire war. Compared with land transportation and sea transportation, air transportation has the advantages of fast transportation speed and can quickly reach war zones. It takes ten days and half a month for sea transportation to sail tens of thousands of nautical miles, but air transportation only takes more than 10 hours. Therefore, during the Gulf War, the main force of the US military and some military supplies arrived at the war zone through air transportation, which could play a role in advance arrival, advance deployment and reconnaissance of the enemy situation, and played a key role in the reception and rapid deployment of the subsequent large forces and large amounts of materials, and thus accelerated the process of the war.
transport aircraft in the Gulf War
In addition, transport aircraft can also transport military supplies to pass over the enemy-occupied areas or bypass the enemy-occupied areas to carry out airdrops to our own troops in the rear and provide support to our own troops. You can also transport paratroopers to airborne, destroy enemy rear targets, and even behead them. Therefore, transport aircraft play an increasingly diverse role in modern warfare. Today, when modern warfare attaches great importance to high speed, maneuver and combat in deep behind enemy lines, the development of transport aircraft is receiving more and more attention. At the same time, transport aircraft are also divided into three categories according to different needs and national strength. According to the range, it is divided into medium-range and long-range. According to the load, it can be divided into medium-sized and large, or it can be divided into tactical transport aircraft and strategic transport aircraft.
transport aircraft airdrop materials
transport aircraft airdrop paratroopers
However, among all the countries in the world today, there are only three countries that have the development and production of tactical transport aircraft, medium-range transport aircraft and strategic transport aircraft, namely China, the United States and Russia. The models are the C-5M "Super Galaxy" transport aircraft of the United States, the C-17 "Global Overlord" transport aircraft and the C130 "Hercules" transport aircraft, the AN-124 "Condor" transport aircraft, the An-26 transport aircraft and Il-476 transport aircraft (or Il-76), and the Y-20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft and the Y-9/8 transport aircraft. According to the carrying capacity, the C-5M "Super Galaxy" transport aircraft of the United States and the An-124 "Condor" transport aircraft of Russia are ultra-long-range strategic transport aircraft, 300-400 tons, mainly undertake ultra-long-range, cross-continental strategic transportation tasks;
, C-17 "Global Overlord" transport aircraft
, US Air Force's C5 "Global Overlord", C17 "Global Overlord" and C130 "Da Little Force of the United States Air Force The Shen transport aircraft
C-17 "Global Overlord" transport aircraft, Il-476 transport aircraft (or Il 76) and Y-20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft are medium-range transport aircraft, both of which are 200 tons, mainly responsible for domestic or cross-border transportation; the C130 "Hercules" transport aircraft, An-26 transport aircraft and Y9/8 transport aircraft are tactical transport aircraft, which are 100 tons and below, mainly undertake short-distance transportation, and are relatively flexible in use, and can take off and land at field airports. From the above information, it is not difficult to see that although my country has equipped a large number of 200-ton Y-20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft, it is still in a blank state on strategic transport aircraft with a rate of more than 300-ton. Therefore, in the future, my country will also need to develop strategic transport aircraft with larger tonnage, stronger carrying capacity and longer range, including 300-ton, 400-ton, or even larger transport aircraft to meet the strategic transportation needs of Chinese Air Force .
An 124 transport aircraft
Il76 transport aircraft
So how big is the gap between my country and the United States and Russia in strategic transport aircraft? From the perspective of gap, the gap between China and the United States and Russia is mainly reflected in two points. One is quantity; the other is the gap in strategic transport aircraft.
1. The gap in the number of transport aircraft
As for the United States, the US Air Force is equipped with a total of 48 C5A/B/C/M "Galaxy" series transport aircraft, 222 C17A "Global Overlord III" transport aircraft, 325 C130H/J "Hercules" transport aircraft, 10 LC130H "Hercules" transport aircraft, plus other transport aircraft, such as C12C/D/F/J "Huron", C20B/H "Gulfstream", C21A "Leil Jet", C37A/B "Gulfstream V" and C40B/C "Quick Horse", etc., and the total number of transport aircraft is close to 700, ranking first in the world. In addition, the United States also has a large scale National Guard , which is also equipped with a large number of transport aircraft. The various large-scale transport aircraft of American civil aviation, is also very large in scale. It was mobilized during the war and its transportation capacity is very strong.
C5 "Galaxy" strategic transport aircraft
Russian Air Force is second only to the United States in terms of transport aircraft equipment. Among the active transport aircraft, the Russian Air Force has a number of 56 An 124 transport aircraft, 55 An 124 transport aircraft, , 115 An 115 transport aircraft, 31 An 72 transport aircraft, 119 Il 76 transport aircraft, 53 L410 short-distance transport aircraft, and a certain number of transport aircraft, with a total number of nearly 400, ranking second in the world, with an air transport echelon with excellent transportation capabilities.
Yel76 transport aircraft
The third is China. After the China Self-Transport 20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft was put into service, the scale of the transport aircraft has improved. At this stage, the outside world estimates that the total number of Y20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft that the Chinese Air Force has already put into service is more than 50, and the production scale is further expanded. In the future, China's demand for Y20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft in the military and civilian fields will be about 300. In addition, China has 23 Il76 transport aircraft, and the rest are mainly Y8/9 transport aircraft, Y11, Y12 and Y7 transport aircraft. The total number of this type of aircraft is about 200. With the Y20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft and Y176 transport aircraft, the number of various transport aircraft of the Chinese Air Force is about 300, second only to Russia.
Yun 20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft
Yun 9 transport aircraft
Hong Kong 12
2. The gap between 300 tons and 400 tons is
Although the Chinese Air Force has equipped the Yun20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft in large quantities, the transport aircraft can only be regarded as a medium-range transport aircraft and cannot enter the sequence of strategic transport aircraft. The representative models of strategic transport aircraft are the C-5M "Super Galaxy" transport aircraft in the United States and the An-124 "Vulture" transport aircraft in Russia. Among them, the maximum take-off weight of the C-5M "Super Galaxy" transport aircraft reached 375 tons, and the An-124 "Vulture" transport aircraft reached 405 tons. In terms of carrying capacity, the C-5M "Super Galaxy" transport aircraft is 130 tons, while the An-124 "Condor" transport aircraft can reach 150 tons. The carrying capacity of these two is twice or more than the Y-20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft. In terms of range, the maximum range of these two is more than 10,000 kilometers and the full load range exceeds 6,000 kilometers. The maximum range of the Y-20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft is 7,800 kilometers, and the full load range is about 4,000-4,500 kilometers. Therefore, from the comparison, it is not difficult to see that the Yun-20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft is not on the same level as these two.
An 124 transport aircraft
And the real positioning of the Yun20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft is between Russia's Il76 and the United States' C17 "Global Overlord" transport aircraft . The Russian Il76 transport aircraft was put into service in 1975 and has been equipped for 47 years so far. It has been exported to nearly 40 countries, with a total production of nearly 900 aircraft. The latest model of Il 76MD has a maximum take-off weight of 210 tons and a maximum carrying capacity of 60 tons. The maximum take-off weight of the Y-20 "Kunpeng" transport aircraft equipped by the Chinese Air Force is 220 tons and the maximum carrying capacity is 66 tons, which is greater than the Il-76MD of Russia.The United States' C17 "Global Overlord" transport aircraft was put into service on July 14, 1993 and was successfully exported to seven countries including the United Kingdom, India, and Canada. It is also one of the pillars of the United States' air transport forces, with an amount of equipment of up to 220. Its maximum takeoff weight is about 275 tons and its maximum carrying capacity is 77 tons.
Il76 and C17 "Global Overlord" transport aircraft are in the same frame
So, from the above content, it is not difficult to see that the gap between China, the United States and Russia in transport aircraft is still very obvious, except in terms of quantity. my country is still in a blank state in the development of super-large strategic transport aircraft. In the future, with the continuous development and progress of China's aviation industry, and the increasing demand for strategic transport aircraft, the Chinese Air Force will also develop and equip 300-ton, 400-ton, or even larger transport aircraft.
Note: The above content only represents personal opinions, the data comes from the Internet, and is for reference only!
(Animalist on October 14, 2022, please do not reprint without authorization, plagiarism will be prosecuted!)
